JEDDAH — Marlon Pagsanjan and Mario Betorio helped Team White pull down Team Black with a barrage of searing under-spin shots and stonewall blocking shots against Cizzner Carascal/Roman Alcantara in Category B2 battle. Playing in the 3rd doubles of this year's summer tennis tournament of the Samahang Pinoy Tennis Club at the King Abdulaziz University Sports Complex, Pagsanjan and Betorio quashed the 7-game deficit that was pushed down their shoulders on account of 8-5, 8-4 losses their team suffered in the 2 sets played earlier. The White pair cruised to an 8-1 finish in the 3rd set to level the overall game scores at 17-all. Earlier, in the 1st and opening set, the Team Black's Fred Masangkay and Boy Isuga, playing in Category B2+, burned out the challenge of Team White's Norwin Catipay and Celso Abella, and closed out the set with a commanding 8-5 score. Playing simultaneously in adjacent court in Category B2, Roy Timtiman and Julius Garcia followed up Team Black's early dominance and sustained their winning streak in the second doubles against White's Rolly Saldana and Mark Anthony Banaag with another comfortable victory. In the ensuing 4th set in Category B2, Waymor Carmelotes/Oca Lovitos brought back the overall lead to Team Black by surging into to 6-3 lead from a 2-3 disadvantage against Team White's Mike Amerol/Leo Milarion, maintaining a 7-4 lead, till they ended the set at 8-4 and summed up the Team Black's advantage over Team White with 25 games to 21. Eman Usman and Sherwin Nervais of Team White, however, could not be denied with a cruise control over their match against Team Black's Pierre Abou Toumo/Mashur Jamiri with masterful execution of backhand winners by Usman and topspin shots by Sherwin Narvais resulting in 4-1 and 7-2 leads. They closed out the 5th set at 8-4 to level the overall scores at 29-all. Team White's JM Bravo/Hajji Pilongo doused cold water on any Team Black's hopes of regaining the lead during the 6th set in Category C, as they broke through from behind at 0-3, then racked up a 6-3 lead against Ariel Domingo/Ali Callanta. They hung on to the lead at 6-4 till the 8-4 finish to thrust Team White on top for the first time at 37-33. In the 7th set of Category C, Nasser "the Chef" Cayquep and Zaldy Gabriel spiced up Team White's momentum with an 8-3 win against Yusuff Adriatico/Allan Mabini of Team Black to stretch White's overall lead to 9 games differential. Nilo Gamba/Arnold Tambalo of Team Black Category C attempted to whittle down their team deficit to the lowest possible difference in the 8th set in Category C doubles, but could muster and finally settled down for only an 8-5 win versus Team White's Fernan Fermin/Clark Maldo. The win cut Team Black's deficit to 6 games from 50-44 overall team scores. The 9th and last doubles in Legend Category is scheduled for Friday (Aug. 5). The "Beat the Heat" Tennis Tournament is organized by the club officers of SPTC led by Ariel Domingo as chairman. Team White is managed by Marlon Pagsanjan, while Team Black is captained by Waymor Carmelotes.
